Weekend preview: Pink beer and other bodaciousness

For Stout Sports Bar and Grille owner Simon Kearney, there’s no time like now to raise money for the fight against breast cancer — or to raise a blazing pink, 28-foot LED cherry blossom tree outside his Oakland Park pub.

Kearney, who has two sisters-in-law who are breast-cancer survivors, will team up with the local Glam-a-THON charity to host the Green Goes Pink fundraiser at Stout (3419 N. Andrews Ave.) from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday.

The plan was first hatched last fall, when Kearney, busy watching pink-draped NFL players, was told by pal Sean Gleeson of Smart LED Concepts that he knew where to get a big, pink symbol for Stout. Details just came together, and Kearney decided to hold his Breast Cancer Awareness Month party nine months early. “Why not? Why wait?” he says.

Fifty percent of all food and beverage sales during Sunday’s party will go to Glam-a-THON, as will all proceeds from a specialty pink beer from Funky Buddha Brewery. Kearney, from County Carlow (50 miles southwest of Dublin), betrays no fear of pink beer.

“I have no knowledge upon the beer,” says Kearney, a “big fan” of the Funky Buddha, “but I am very confident that they will have something very suitable upon the day.”

At 6 p.m., they’ll flip the switch on the tree, which will remain lit year-round to honor breast-cancer survivors and those affected by the disease. Kearney believes it will be the largest LED tree in the country.

The pink LED glow will not be the only light shining this year on Kearney. Sometime in late March, he’s told, the 350-gallon aquarium recently installed in his beachfront McSorley’s bar during an episode of “Fish Tank Kings” will make its debut on the Net Geo Wild reality show. The show follows the exploits of Fort Lauderdale aquarium specialists Living Color.

And by fall, Kearney hopes to be hosting the opening party for Whiskey Jack’s, an upscale restaurant and bar at 1309 E. Las Olas Blvd. That theme may sound familiar to fans of American Social and Royal Pig.

Kearney, who owned a restaurant-bar called Jack’s in New York’s Times Square a decade ago, says his new spot will, of course, specialize in whiskey. He expects to offer 150 variations, including one of his favorites: 18-year-old Redbreast, from Ireland.

Of his Las Olas competition, he says: “I want to be kind to everybody, but ... we might be looking to raise it a notch.”

OUT OF 'OFFICE'You can’t stop B.J. Novak, you can only hope to contain him. Novak, of course, is the former writer and producer of the revered NBC sitcom “The Office,” whose Ryan the Intern character had prime time’s best satirical facial hair. These days, he’s peddling a new collection of humor stories, “One More Thing” (more proof that he’s the funniest Harvard grad since William Rehnquist), which he’ll celebrate with an appearance hosted by City Theatre and Books and Books at 8 p.m. Saturday. You can get two tickets for the event — so popular that it’s been moved to the big room at Coral Gables Congregational Church (3010 De Soto Blvd.) — by purchasing a copy of “One More Thing” at Books and Books. Info: 305-442-4408 or BooksAndBooks.com.

BEER AND CHOCOLATE Speaking of the Funky Buddha, the brewery is making plans for its next bottle release, the popular chocolate milk porter called Nib Smuggler. A limited run of 700 22-ounce bottles will be offered at the brewery (1201 NE 38th St., Oakland Park) on March 6 beginning at 6 p.m. There will be a one-per-customer limit for the $12 bottles until 9 p.m. That day you’ll also be able to get the draft version of Nib Smuggler, which will start showing up any day now at South Florida restaurants that offer Funky Buddha beers. Info: FunkyBuddhaBrewery.com.

GARDEN STATE OF MINDIt’s been 10 years now since onetime University of Miami film professor Sam Beam burbled into the popular culture with his music’s appearance, as Iron and Wine, in several curious places, including on such soapy TV hits as “The O.C.” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” But it was the delicate romance of “Such Great Heights” on the brilliant soundtrack for the 2004 indie film “Garden State” that predicted the niche that the now Austin-based Beam’s cerebral poetry eventually would fall into so neatly. Beam performs at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Culture Room (3045 N. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale). Tickets: $30. Info: 954-564-1074, CultureRoom.net.

FEELING FAT?You can get ready for Saturday’s Fat Village Art Walk with Friday’s free barbecue party at C&I Studios (541 NW First Ave.) in Fort Lauderdale’s FAT Village. The monthly event is from 6 to 8 p.m. out in front of the studio and offers, as the name implies, free dogs and burgers, but also the potential for uniquely engaging camaraderie. Beer gods from the Riverside Market will be on hand, which doesn’t hurt. Bring a potluck dish to vie for prizes. Info: Facebook.com/CIStudios.

CLEAVAGE WEEKENDWhat with the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue out this week, and the racy Bodacious Bodices Weekend on Saturday and Sunday at the Florida Renaissance Festival in Deerfield Beach, we’re wondering if it’s only a matter of time before festival organizers introduce Ye Olde Body Paint Weekend. Not sure how we feel about it, though. Tickets: $20 (kids ages 2 to 11 get in for $9, but this is a pretty blue weekend, Mom). Season passes: $65, $30. Info: Ren-Fest.com.

THE NEW BROWNThe Zac Brown Band in December released “The Grohl Sessions Vol. 1,” a four-song EP with grunge godfather Dave Grohl that Brown calls the “brand-new beginning of our sound.” Get an earful on May 31 when the ZBB stops at the Cruzan Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach. Tickets for the show ($25.50-$73.50) go on sale 10 a.m. Friday at LiveNation.com and all Ticketmaster outlets.

WATCH YOUR STEPOne of the guaranteed good times for South Florida families every year, the 20th annual Lake Worth Street Painting Festival on Saturday and Sunday will see more than 400 artists from around the country transforming downtown into a jaw-dropping, head-tilting museum. Live music is part of the festival, claimed by organizers as the nation’s largest street-painting event, and the Children’s Meadow allows youngsters to create their own public chalk art. Hours are 11 a.m.-7 p.m. both days. Info: 561-582-4401, StreetPaintingFestivalInc.org.

YOUR KACEY JONESThe seeds of the inaugural Lauderdale Live festival can be traced to the Key West Songwriters Festival, where local tourism officials found Nashville music veteran Don Donahue, who eventually helped the city create the three-day downtown music event. One of its headliners, Lyle Lovett, also brought up the Key West festival, mainly because buddy Robert Earl Keen wouldn’t shut up about how nice it was. The 2014 Key West Songwriters Festival lineup came out this week, led by 2014 Grammy winner Kacey Musgraves, Sara Evans, Anders Osbourne and Keen, among many others performing on the island May 7-11. Tickets will go on sale in March. Info: KeyWestSongwritersFestival.com.

PRINCE CHARMINGPerhaps you are more Morrisseythan ZBB (can you be both?). The famously confessional songwriter, influential pop stylist and score-settling memoirist will bring his U.S. tour to Miami’s Arsht Center on May 31. The tour of more than two dozen concert-hall dates promises to be a stylish retrospective of the bleak and still-beloved poetry created with the Smiths, as well as an introduction to music from a just-completed Harvest Records album, his first since 2009’s “Years of Refusal.” Tickets start at $59.50 and go on sale 10 a.m. Friday. Kristeen Young, a frequent musical companion who shares Morrissey’s prickly pop sensibility, opens. Info: ArshtCenter.org.

COOL JAZZInnovative seven-string guitar master Charlie Hunter is a man of many musical impulses, having worked with everyone from Kurt Elling and Mos Def to John Mayer and Norah Jones, but drummer Scott Amendola has long been the bedrock for the duo’s jazz explorations. Their 7:30 p.m. Friday performance at the Bienes Center for the Arts at St. Thomas Aquinas High School (2801 SW 12th St., Fort Lauderdale) likely will lean heavily on music from their new album, “Pucker,” a compilation of grooves written by Amendola. Tickets: $14.99, $24.99. Call 954-513-2270, or go to BCA-STA.org.

BARE ATTACKPerhaps it bears repeating: The Las Vegas-based Chippendales revue did such big business during its three-week run at Mansion last month that the boys are back beginning this weekend for a five-week run at the Miami Beach nightclub. Info: Chippendales.Wantickets.com.

ART FOR ART'S SAKEArt Garfunkel lost his voice to vocal cord problems three years ago, but after treatment has found it again. His first formal tour in four years began last month, and reviews so far have suggested a work in progress, as he eases his voice back toward the pristine quality that defined the best music of Simon and Garfunkel. His set lists have included new readings of the duo’s "The Boxer" and "The Sound of Silence," which we can never hear too many times. Garfunkel will perform Friday at 8 p.m. at Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center (tickets: $39.50-$87.25; BrowardCenter.org) and March 1 at the Borland Center in Palm Beach Gardens (tickets: $53-$113.25; TheBorlandCenter.org).